Panelled building units



sept. 11, 1956 G. F. TEMPEST 2,762,085

PANELLED BUILDING UNITS Filed Jan. 21, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VEN TOR.

A ifa/w60.

United States Patent PNELLED BUILDING UNITS Gerard F. Tempest, Olivia, N. C., assigner. by mesme assignments, to Angus C. Cameron, Sanford, N. C.

3 Claims.

This invention is concerned with panelled building units and the floors or roofs of which said panelled building units are a part.

This application is a continuation-impart of my application for Structural Wood Unit, Serial No. 456,810, tiled September 17, 1954.

An object of the invention is to provide a composite wooden unit for the purpose described that may be composed of boards of the cheapest kinds of Wood of the genus Pinus, such as #2 Common pine aud Douglas fir.

Another object is to provide a structural unit that can be fabricated from wooden members of various Widths, each unit being made up of boards of various widths haphazardly arranged.

Yet another object is to unite various length and Width boards in a novel manner, in order to reduce the cost of construction of building residences and other building structures.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a building construction which includes a plurality of panels each of the type stated above, and wherein each side edge lies in a single plane and from which side edge protrude the fibres of the unnished boards as they come from the saw.

Another object is to provide a lioor or roof having a plurality of said units laid over joists with their side edges abutting each other, each unit being composed of a plurality of irregular boards of various widths, haphazardly arranged to form each unit, and a finishing layer of boards whose abutting side edges are parallel to the abutting side edges of the units and wherein the abutting side edges of any juxtaposed pair of boards of the finishing layer will not ordinarily overlie the juncture lines at the side edges of more than one unit.

Other objects will appear hereinafter throughout the specification.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a top plan view of a finished flooring or roof structure with parts broken away;

Figure 2 is an enlarged detail perspective view of one end of the flooring shown in Figure l, with parts broken away to show the lines of juncture of the underflooring and overooring; and

Figure 3 is an enlarged View of one of the boards partly broken away of a building unit showing the plane side surface and the fibres extending therefrom.

Building units constructed in accordance with the present invention are preferably made in large quantities of standard length, a typical length of the finished units being 4' x 8. The length may be obtained by trimming after the side edges of the boards have been united to each other.

Referring to the drawings, the letter A indicates the unit as a whole. The unit consists of a plurality of boards 10 each having ends 12 and 14.

The outside boards are provided with exposed straight side edges 16 and 18. The straight side edges of the several boards that are joined to each other are indicated by the numeral 20.

It is of particular importance in the present invention that the rough side edges 16 and 18 are sawed in such manner as to provide surfaces al1 areas of which lie in the same planes so that, when a pair of said boards 10 is brought together, the abutting faces 16 and 18, when glue has been applied to said faces, will not result in a bond having thin and thick areas. Should these surfaces not be surfaces which lie in the same plane, that is, the surface of each side edge, thick and thin adhesive layers will be formed when these side surfaces are joined to each other.

An enlarged detail has been shown in Figure 3 in order to show the side surfaces 18 and 20 as entirely plaire surfaces except for the fibres 36 which protrude outwardly from these surfaces due to the fact that they are surfaces which are unnished as they come from the saw.

These side edges 20 are sawed but unfinished side edges which, because of their rough finish and the highly porous type of wood used, lend themselves admirably to the making of a fast joint at the juxtaposed side edges of the boards in order that the units may be handled during shipment and storage Without coming apart. The side edges of adjacent boards are joined to each other preferably by urea-aldehyde resin, or a similar thermo-setting type of resin.

The boards l0 may be obtained from small or second growth pine trees having a diameter ranging from several inches up to a foot or more. A considerable saving in cost may be effected in constructing the units A of lumber that has been cut from small trees where the trees are of dierent sizes.

It is essential that each board extends the entire length of the unit.

The cut pieces of lumber of various widths are laid side by side after their rough unfinished juxtaposed side edges have been impregnated with a urea-aldehyde or other thermo-setting type of resin, the said resin coating being indicated by the numeral 22.

The boards, as indicated above, of each building unit are haphazardly arranged so that ordinarily none of the boards of one unit will lie in the same vertical plane when a second unit has been laid to form a continuation of the first unit, such as indicated in Figure 2.

In making a unit after the boards have been attached to each other by subjecting the same to a heat treatment and whatever pressure is necessary to form strong joints, they are cut and trimmed to proper width and length. In this cutting operation, the saw cuts which form the sides 16 and 18 must form side surfaces all areas of which lie in the same plane for each side surface 16 or 18.

ln making a ooring or rooting, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, the joists 24 are arranged in parallel relationship and the units A are placed thereon, so that the end of each unit will extend halfway transversely across one of the joists, the end of the next adjacent unit in a lengthwise direction occupying the remainder of the space on the joist, as shown in these figures.

The nishing boards 26, which are longer than the length of the individual underooring building units, are then laid on top of the building units so that the grains of the building units and the finishing ooring, numbered 38 and 4i), respectively, extend in the same direction. As will be noted in each of Figures l and 2, the joining straight side edges form lines 42 which are out of alignment with the juncture lines 46 of the finishing boards 26, but where one of the juncture lines 46 lies over the juncture lines of one of the units A, this will extend for only the length of the said unit, because the next unit has juncture lines which are ordinarily out of alignment with all of the juncture lines of the unit with which it lies end to end.

The above noted structure is a particularly strong construction, because ordinarily there is no chane of a shearing stress from the upper boards at their juncture lines 46 exerting any pressure on the juncture lines 42 of the units A fora distance of more than' one unit. Even where this occurs, it will only occur with one pair of boards, as will be noted by reference to the drawings. The upper boards are preferably provided with side tongues and grooves, indicated by reference numeral 30, and they may be provided with countersinks 32 for the vertical nails 34. After the nails have been driven so as to connect a inishing board to a board of one of the units A and whichnails are driven into the joist 24 as shown in Figure 2, the count'ersink is filled in by a wooden plug, as is well known in the art.

Additionally or in substitution of the nails 34, angled nails 44 may be driven through the tongue of each tongue and groove connection 30, through one of the boards ofa unit A, and into the joists, as indicated in Figure 2.

When such nails are used, the countersinks 32 and nails 34 'are usually dispensed with.

It willbe appreciated that equal thickness, continuous lengths, and straight side edges are some of the essentials ofthe individual boards that compose each unit. Porous woods such as yellow pine or white pine, preferably the formenare essential, as such woods arecheap and are highly porous. Small secondary growth trees of this kind of wood from which said boards are made are found in great abundance throughout the Southeastern United States.

` The structural -building unit of the present invention may be constructed of boards of various unassorted widths, haphazardly arranged in the same unit, and ranging from aboutV one inch in width to any other available width,

ysuch as eight inches. This arrangement greatlyreduces the cost of the units, as no selection as to width is necessary.

Inorder to facilitate an understanding of the invention, reference has been made to a single embodiment illustrated in the accompanying drawings. I desire to be limited, however, only to the extent set forth in the claims herein.

I claim:

1. A wooden building construction comprising a plurality of parallel spaced supports having building unit attaching surfaces, a nishing layer comprising a plurality of' boards arranged in parallel Vrelationship with their abutting side edges at right angles to said supports, said nishing layer boards being of substantially the same width, a plurality of preformed building units located b'etweensaid iinishing layer and said supports to form a support for said nishing layer, said building units being secured to the attaching surfaces of said supports and arranged in side edge-to-side edge, and end-to-end abutting relation, each building unit being composed o-f a plurality of boards of equal length and thickness with their side edges arranged in parallel abutting relationship andpermanently secured together, each unit having opposite parallel ends, and each of said unit boards extending fromV one end of each building unit to the opposite end thereof, said boards of each unit extending in the same direction as the boards of other units and said boards of each unit being of various widths arranged at random so that the juncture lines formed by the side edges of the joined boards are ordinarily out of alignment with the juncture lines formed at the'side edges of the boards of another adjacentunit located at either end thereof, the llength of each unit being such that each of the abutting end edg'es of any two units extend onto and partially bridge the said attaching` surface of one of said spaced supports whereby the abutting ends ofV each pair'of units are Vfullyfsupported on'one of said spaced supports, with 'theconfronting facesv of said abutting unit ends having bard'juncture lines that are ordinarily out of alignment,

said nishing layer boards extending in the same direction as the unit boards and beingv of greater length' than the length of the boards of any individual unit which they overlie whereby the said abutting side edges of the nishing layer boards will be out of vertical alignment with the juncture formed at the abutting side edges of the underlying boards of at least one of the units.

2. A building construction comprising the combination of a plurality of equally spaced apart elongated supporting members, a subsurface layer on said supporting meinbers, and a surface layer on said subsurface layer, said subsurface layer comprising a plurality of rectangular units each consisting of a plurality of adhesively joined elongated boards of random widths and of uniform thickness, the length of eachof said elongated boards being the length of its unit, each unit extending substantially the distance between at least two of said supporting members, and the ends thereof of said unit terminating on two of said spaced supporting members, said surface layer comprising elongated board members of uniform thickness and extending lengthwise over the lengths of at least two of said elongated rectangular units, and attaching means extending through said layers and into said supporting members.

3. A lbuilding construction comprising the combination of a plurality of equally spaced apart elongated supporting members, a subsurface layer on said supporting members, and a surface layer on said subsurface layer, said subsurface layer comprising a plurality of rectangular units each consisting 4of ya plurality of adhesively joined elongated boardsA of random widths and of uniform thickness, the length of each of said elongated boards being the length of its (unit, each unit extending substantially the distance between at least two ofsaid supporting members, and the ends of said unit terminating on two of said spaced supporting members, said surface layer comprising elongated yboar'dvmembers of uniform thickness and extending lengthwise over the lengths of at least two of said elongated rectangular4 units, 'the juncture lines of each pair of boardsof one unit being ordinarily out of alignment'with thejuncture lines both of a pair of juxtaposed boards ofthe next adjacent, abutting unitthe boards of which lie end to end and of the juncture lines of a pair of boards of said surface layer directly under which said one unit and said next'abutting unit lie, whereby all sets of juncture lines of both said units and the juncture lines of said pair of boards of said surface layer located above said boards rst named are ordinarily out of alignment with each other, the Vboards of said surface layer being connected at their side edges to each other by vtongue and groove connections, and attaching means comprising nails, each nail extending through a board of said surface layer, a board of one of said units over which said surface layer lies, and into one of'said spaced supporting members over which both boards lie, certain of said nails extending through the tongue of one of said boards of said surface layer, said spaced supporting members extending transversely to thev direction in which all of said boards extend.

References Cited 4in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS OTHER REFERENCES Factory FloorSurfaces, page 11. i

Carpentry for the Building Trades, pages 21 and 22. 

